Marko Orešković
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Marko Orešković (April 3, 1895 - October 20, 1941) was a Croatian (and Yugoslav) Partisan commander. He was also known by his nickname Krntija.
He was born in Široka Kula near Gospić, which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time. At the age of 15 he left his impoverished home to earn living as a coal miner in Germany. During World War I he was drafted into Austro-Hungarian Navy. In 1918 he was imprisoned for his role in the sailor's mutiny on the battleship Szent Istvan.
In 1925 he became a member of Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and a year later he went to Belgrade. In 1929 he was arrested and tortured by Royal Yugoslav police and later sentenced to five years of prison.
After serving his sentence he went to Spain to fight in Spanish Civil War on Republican side. He served as political commisar of Đuro Đaković battalion of International Brigades. After the end of war in 1939 he returned to Yugoslavia where he was appointed in the Central Committee of the Croatian Communist Party. A year later he took part in 5th National Conferrence of CPY. Soon afterwards he was arrested by authorities and interned in Lepoglava prison. He managed to escape.
Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and establishment of Independent State of Croatia (NDH), CPY sent Orešković to organise an armed uprising in his native Lika region. The uprising was successful because the local Serb population suffered persecution by new Ustasha regime and Orešković with his war experience soon became one of the most popular commanders.
However, the insurgents were soon split on the issue whether to engage in combat only with NDH or all Axis forces, including the Italians who offered protection from Ustasha atrocities. This faction, who would later become known as Chetniks, was opposed by Orešković, an ethnic Croat, who wanted insurgence to cross ethnic lines.
In October 1941 Orešković was named as the first political commissar of the Lika Partisan Detachments, and later he became member of Supreme HQ of Croatia. When he went to Drvar to conference with other insurgent commanders, he was ambushed, captured by the Chetniks and shot. In 1945 he received the title of People's Hero of Yugoslavia.
In late 1980s the official version of his death was challenged by Serb nationalists. Instead, it was attributed to his alleged opposition to official Party policy.[citation needed]
General Gojko Polovina, commander of the VI Lika Division who fought together with Orešković, gave this alternate description in the magazine "Student", and named two partisans who allegedly killed Orešković in the village of Očijevo. The same Polovina is, by his own testimony, known to have commanded partisan units that acted more like the Chetniks than like the Partisans, given that they were composed of Serbs only and committed reprisals against Croatian population. It is unclear how Polovina could amend the description of Orešković's death without implicating himself, given that it was actually he who wasn't acting in compliance with the official Party policy.
